We ordered five yards of compost today to spread throughout the front yard and garden but we’re temporarily stalled by … snow … in April!

(Update: see here for a detailed course description)

My dog (a pure bred Llewellin Setter) does not subscribe to the please-my-owner philosophy that apparently all other canines practice. He’s entirely self-centered and drives me nuts most of the time (two days ago he tried to squeeze himself between a rhody and the camera pressed to my face – my nose and the rhody lost) but he’s a good looking dog, I love him and when given the time to run he’s a joy to watch.

I recently arrived back from Israel. It’s a country I knew very little about prior to going and what I did know turned out to be more a product of the media than I realized. I spent most of my time in a suburb of Tel Aviv and couldn’t tell it apart from any other area affected by the growth of the high tech sector over the last decade. I went with visions of soldiers walking around with rifles but instead found surfers, runners and a generation of Israelis abandoning their religion…

We’re finally seeing the signs of spring after a rather late delay. The rhodys are beginning to open and the hellebores are basking in the sunlight.